Simran holds Bidyut to tie

A STAFF REPORTER

FIDE chess

Participants contemplate moves at Cotton College indoor stadium in Guwahati on Wednesday. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, April 3: Unseeded Assam girl Simran Ahmed today gave a tough fight to sixth seed Bidyut Bikash Handique of Assam before settling for a draw in the second round of the AACA International Fide Rating Chess Championship at T. Ao indoor stadium of Cotton College here.

Simran, who is about 600 rating points below Handique, held her nerve for 80 moves before settling for the creditable draw on the 81st move in a contest that lasted about four hours.

The top board, too, witnessed a contest as Sikkim girl Sushmita Lama, with 1,558 ELO points, almost beat top-seeded Rajib Dhar before blundering in the final stage to lose the game.

On the 20th board, GTC Chess Foundation boy Nitish Das showed some good tactical skills to win a pawn against higher rated L. Atembi of Manipur and then settled for a draw in a well-fought rook and pawn endgame.

In the third round games played in the afternoon, Rajib Dhar beat Pranab Kumar Nath in the top board while two Bengal players, Sumit Kumar and Santu Mandal, facing each other, settled for a quick draw in 24 moves.

On the fourth board, Sikkim lad Rakesh Gurung managed to hold current Assam and North East Champion Santanu Barpatra Gohain to a draw in a keen pawn endgame.

At the end of the third round, altogether 18 players were leading with three points apiece while nine were on 2.5 points to share the second place for a close trial.

The fourth and fifth rounds will be played tomorrow from 9am and 3pm respectively. More then 180 players are participating in the event.

Athletics meet

The 37th inter-district junior and senior athletics meet of the Assam Athletics Association will be held at Nehru Maidan in Duliajan from Thursday to Saturday.

Altogether 689 athletes from 31 district units have turned up till today evening for the 147-event meet to be held in under-14, under-16, under-18 and under-20 boys and girls and men and women’s categories.

More athletes are expected to arrive by tonight, the organisers said. The annual Ranjit Gogoi prize-money state marathon run will also be held as part of the meet on Saturday.